This invention relates generally to techniques for manufacturing electronic components and, more particularly, to techniques for assembling, testing and repairing printed wiring board assemblies (PWBAs) and modules using surface mount technology (SMT), and modules of multiple PWBAs. Packaging technologies for electronic components used in advanced avionics systems require the placement and installation of components such as surface-mounted chip resistors and capacitors, ceramic leadless chip carriers, and fine-pitch devices with more than 100 leads on 25-mil (0.025 inch or approximately 0.1 mm), on printed wiring boards. Anticipated developments include devices with hundreds of pins and even closer pin spacings. In this environment, manufacturing operations such as stencil printing solder paste, and placing the components, are very exacting. "Reworking," i e. removing and replacing components, is difficult and costly, and subjects the entire assembly to risk of damage.
Manufacturing tools have been developed to handle various aspects of the difficulties associated with this demanding environment. Among the available tools are microscope-aided visual inspection stations, solder reflow machines for installing and removing fine-pitch devices, and a material dot dispenser for accurately placing solder pastes, thermal adhesives and component stand-offs. Even with the availability of these tools, the assembly, rework and repair of printed wiring board assemblies require significant manual intervention and depend heavily on operator skill. In this manual manufacturing or reworking environment, it is not possible to obtain the degree of process control needed to ensure consistently high productivity quality. In addition, the absence of computer integration in this environment requires manual compilation of design data, work instructions, test results, and product configuration data. This adds significant time, cost, and error potential to the assembly and repair cycle. The present invention is directed to a solution to these problems.